as to Military Employments in his Lordships Country as he has exprest it and also with an Exception as to our Kingdom which as Sr. Edward Coke Chief Justice has well Observ'd is divided not only by the Seas but by its own Laws from all the rest of the World for that they have no dependance upon any Forreign Law whatsoever no not upon the Civil Law but are in such a manner Appropriated to it self as that no forreign Precedents are to be objected against it And with this special Exception in the very Act of Parliament for the taking the Parliamentary-Test in Relation to the the King's Majesty that now is being then Duke of York and Heir Presumptive to the Crown which in Right of Succession to His Royal Brother He now Enjoys there is a Proviso made in these words Provided always that nothing in this Act contained shall extend to His Royal Highness the Duke of York Provided had been sufficient and I presume always will be construed only as Redundant But as there is no express Saving so neither is there any express limitation of the King's Prerogative in that Act. I also conceive That His Lordships Assertion ought to be taken with an Explanation or farther Exception of such Governments as by their Laws and Constitutions admit of the Publick Exercise of both Religions Roman Catholick and Reformed and also of all such Imperial Dyets in Germany and Poland as are Constituted of of Princes and Palatinates as well of one as of the other Religion And tho I have no other Exceptions to add in matter of Fact as it is limited to Christian States yet among such as are of the Reformed Religion who acknowledge the Authority and Verity of the Holy Scripture It may be alledged that Ab Origine it was no General Rule Law or Reason of State in Relation to Civil Government That all who were admitted to Publick Employment should be of one and the same Religion I omit to instance those mean Examples which may be given from thence to the Contrary I shall mention only that of the Babylonian and Persian Kings Nebuchadnezzar gave directions to the Master of his Eunuchs to bring the Choicest of the Isralites for Wisdom and Knowledge to stand in the Kings Pallace Daniel and his Brethren were brought and stood before the King tho they neither were of nor would take any care to secure the Kings Religion or the Publick Worship of the Countrey And these and others of their Nation were promoted by him And the Succeeding Persian Monarchs in Places of Trust and Publick Employments and obtained great Priviledges in relation to their own Religion Nation Countrey and Principal City But it is to be observed That tho Liberty-of-Conscience was rarely Interdicted by any of the Great Monarchs before or till the Age after our Saviours manifestation in the Flesh so that to dissent from any Established Religion was no impediment to a Secular Employment yet an Antichristian Spirit ever and anon discovered it self in such as had a form of Godliness in their Disturbing and Opposing the true Servants of God in the Peaceable Enjoyment of their Civil and Religious Liberties upon the account of their dissent from such Forms of Worship as by Custom or Tradition were commonly used Reformation according to the Revealed Will of God has often been maligned whereof we have also divers instances in Scripture one I shall mention because tho it be a digression it seems apt to our present purpose The Laws of the Medes and Persian were as by a stated Maxime esteemed unalterable Cyrus their King as also his Successors having experience of the Wisdom and Fidelity of some of the Jews in their Captivity not only placed them in Publick Employments but granted them as a special Favour the Rebuilding of their City and the Temple of God and Restitution of His Worship at Jerusalem according to the Divine Law. The Kings great Officers and the Nations inhabiting in the Countries Adjacent tho they pretended to seek and do Sacrifice to the same God yet being Adversaries to the Jews Restitution and Reformation of Divine Worship obtained countermands to this Persian Kings decree and even in the Reign of Cyrus hired Councellors to frustrate the Jews purposes and by Royal Orders obtained contrary to the first Decree Interrupted the Progress full Accomplishment thereof for many years after And tho these King had Experience of the Fidelity of the Persons to whom these Favours were granted yet on Pretensions that the Grants would be to the Kings damage and that the Jews in general were as some of them at certain seasons had shew'd themselves to be a Seditious People They were prevented for a long time of the full Enjoyment of the Priviledges Granted In like manner so far as the parallel in a due construction will bear If the States of the United Netherlands had made such a Judgment Universally of all that were of the Communion of the Church of Rome That they were and would be persidious to their Civil Governours of another Religion And had for that Reason in the first formation of their State rejected those Roman Catholicks who joyned with them in defending their Publick Liberty They never could have had that Experience of their Fidelity and Eminent Service for which his Lordship now applauds them It is not my part to speak any thing more concerning the English Roman Catholicks upon this ccasion then only to refer to such of our Laws as in Ages past were made by them to Vindicate and Guard the Kings Prerogative and the Rights of his Subjects against the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome and Clergy of that Communion But I conceive his Lordship by observing the different conduct of those of the Reformed Religion where they have the Government toward the Roman Catholicks from what the Roman Catholicks is where they have the Power and reckon themselves safe towards those of the Reformed Religion hath administred a fair occasion to His Majesties Subjects of that Communion to manisest how far it consists with their Religion and Resolution whether admitted into or debarr'd from places of Trust and Publick Employments indispensably to persist in their Obdience to the Soveraign Majesty of this Kingdom and Amicable and Peaceable Behaviour towards all their fellow Subjects of the Reformed Religion And whether they will contribute their assistance in their respective Capacities for establishing and preserving Liberty of Conscience on such a Foundation as may secure all sorts of Dissenters now and herereafter from all Penalties and Coercion For if by any such Declaration it should appear we have English Roman Catholickt like unto those of the Netherlands This might perhaps make way for some distinctions to be made in future provisions by Law as heretofore has been done between some Roman Catholicks and others so as to avoid the general condemnation of all who are of their Communion as other parties have been to the injury of many Thousands
are Supream for a Kingdom divided against is self cannot stand The Soveraignty of GOD in matters of Religion over All and the Rule and Soveraignty of One or more over others in things of a Natural or Civil Relation being both of God's ordination though distinct in their respective Foundations the one in Grace the other in Nature Yet No Case can be reasonably supposed to set them at any such variance one against the other as that they cannot by the Rules of Justice be reconciled for he that has ordained them both is the God of Order and hath likewise appointed suitable means that both of them may concurr with and assist each other Natural and Civil Government Religion by Countenance Maintenance and Protection Religion Natural and Civil Government by instruction and so each of them may accomplish their respective ends for which they are ordained of GOD. And if this be granted it will necessarily follow That all those Discords which are raised between them are occasioned by such humane Usurpations upon one or the other of them as are not according to God's Ordination And of such Usurpations of Natural Civil and Ecclesiastical Rulers over the Consciences of their respective Inferiours and of Ecclesiastical Rulers over the Consciences and Civil Rights also of their Superiours in a Civil Relation all sorts of men have too often and too long felt the sad experience Blessed of GOD may he be who in this respect proposes himself to be a Peace-maker and to settle each Interest upon its proper Foundation For Natural Civil and Ecclesiastical Rulers by the Ordination of GOD are not a Terrour to any good Work but are and ought to be so to all that is evil else their power would be given them in vain But the Exercise of the Power of Natural and Civil Rulers in respect to actions of a Civil and Moral Nature are of one sort and that of Ecclesiasticks of another And as before each of these do best in their distinct kinds when they keep a due Decorum within their respective hounds No Natural or Civil Superiour can justly pretend to an Authority from GOD to keep the Christian Religion out of his Family City or Kingdom for if that were so the Master or Ruler who is himself Irreligious Idolatrous or Prophane might abridge all that are of his Family or Subjects of the means of their Conversion and Salvation The Parent or Master may and ought to instruct their Children and Servants in the Knowledge Religious Fear and Worship of GOD. And if any Child or Childish Servant who with respect to his Age and exercise of his Conscience and Understanding is not sui Juris refuse to read any Divine Author or to learn or repeat by Memory such Lessons or to attend upon any Religious Exercise which the Father or Master appoints Such refusal requires a due Correction for in such a Child or Servant who understands not how to distinguish between a Religious and Moral Act nor what it is to Worship GOD in Spirit and in Truth it is an Immoral Disobedience and Breach upon the Natural and Civil Rule of the Parent or Master as much as if they had refused any necessary Labour but when such a Child or Servant arrives to such an Understanding as to chuse or refuse any Article or Act of Religion as it agrees with or is against his Conscience and Knowledge of the Will of GOD and manner of his Worship in such a Case he ought not to be coerced by any Temporal or Corporal Penalties either by Parent or Master to act against his Conscience Civil Laws respecting such actions as purely relate to the Christian Religion if they be only Declaratory of what GOD commands or forbids in reference to His Worship may be greatly Instrumental to promote true Piety if no Temporal Penalties be annext nor Civil Rights thereby invaded Temporal Penalties are proper Remedies to Correct the Disturbers of Civil Order Ecclesiastical Censures are a like proper Remedy to purge a Spiritual Communion from Errours and Heresies if no Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo attend upon such Censures But as no Natural or Civil Rulers may compell any Person who is of years of Discretion to judge of his own Religious Actions and therein with Faith and Understanding to commit his Cause to GOD by Temporal Penalties to profess or perform any Mysterious Doctrine or Worship purely relating to the Christian Religion or to be of any Spiritual Communion So neither may any Spiritual Congregation inforce their Censures any farther than to expell a disorderly Person out of their Communion No man may be driven against his Understanding and Conscience to go out of his Worldly State into a Church Nor may any man who is expell'd out of a Church be driven any farther than out of his Spiritual Communion back again into his Worldly Estate An Excommunicate Husband Parent or Master does not by his Spiritual Faults forfeit his Natural or Civil Rule over his Wife Children or Servants though the one be retain'd in their Spiritual Communion and the other cast out yet the Communicants ought to discharge their Natural and Civil Duties of Obedience to the Person Excommunicate for no Natural or Civil Bonds are disunited meerly by a Disunion in Spiritual Communion This being a matter of voluntary choice both as to his entrance into and continuance in such a Communion so long and no longer than he approves the Terms and observes the Rules of a Spiritual Nature which are proper and requisite for his Communion The other is fixt by such natural and civil Obligations as are not submitted to his Choice at any time until the set-terms on which he stands so related are by the like natural or civil discharges fully accomplish'd or determined And if these things consist with Christian Religion as it respects Spiritual Communion and Domestick Relations much more ought they to be regarded in reserence to Subjects Civil Relation to their Soveraign Prince For in the particular Case they only respect the mainteuance of a natural or civil Peace and Concord in a Domestick State for a season Wherein the Publick is no otherwise concerned than to correct not spiritual but unnatural and uncivil Disorders if any such happen But in the general Case the Obligation of the Subject to the Civil Obedience of his Soveraign is of an Universal Influence and perpetual Continuance in Succession whether they be or continue to be of the same or different Opinions of Religion Whence no man in particular can discharge himself till Death puts an Issue to the Obligation Every open Immoral Act Undutiful Behaviour of any Person towards such as are his Superiours in a Natural or Civil Relation Injurious Dealing with his Neighbour and whatever other Crimes are openly committed against the Light of Nature and common Reason of Mankind fall naturally and necessarily under the Civil Governour 's Cognizance and Jurisdiction to be corrected with Temporal Penalties as may be most
so Represented as that it may not be any Offence to their Highnesses Dissenters though in such things as relate indifferently to them all they may all agree yet in other things they dissent one from another as much as from those who are no Dissenters so called in Reference to the Establish'd Religion and in that Coercion of Conscience Subjection to Fines Imprisonments and Universal Ruine to which by Statute-Laws as they now stand they were all Exposed They are equally concerned in an Orderly and such a Way as is attainable with His Majesty's Approbation and Royal Assent to endeavour that all those Laws may be either Totally or in part Repealed and the rest so Explained as that none of them may be Exposed to the Severity of them for Conscience sake But although the Pressures under which the Dissenters were laid are a sufficient necessious Excuse for what they have done and further obliged themselves to do in their Humble Thankful Addresses to the King Yet for His Lordships more entire Satisfaction that their Necessities have not driven them to do any more than what is agreeable with their Principles in Relation to Civil Government and such Laws as are requisite for its Support Dignity and Safety so far as I am capable of understanding their Reasons for so doing by a general Conversation amongst most sorts of them for many Years past I am desirous they should be Communicated for a general Satisfaction and more particularly and especially that his Lordship may know them if he will vouchsafe to read my Sentiments therein who am an old Dissenter from the Discipline Service and Statute Law Worship and some Canons but no Adversary to the Doctrines in general or Constitution of the Church of England His Lordship is pleased to say Page 4. That it is certain that there is no Kingdom Commonwealth Constituted Body or Assembly whatsoever in which there are not Laws made for the Safety thereof and that Provide against all Attempts whatsoever that disturb their Peace and that prescribe the Conditions and Qualities that they judge necessary for all that shall bear Employments in that Kingdom State or Corporation And no man can pretend that there is any Injury done him that he is not admitted to Employments when he doth not satisfie the Conditions and Qualities Required And afterwards page 7. Our Laws are Express Excluding Roman Catholicks by Name from all share in the Government and from all Employments either of the Policy or Justice of our Countrey It is true I do not know of any express Law that shuts them out of Military Employments That had indeed been hard since in the first Formation of our State they joined with us in defending our Publick Liberty and did us Eminent Service during the Wars therefore they were not shut out from these Military Employments for the publick Safety was no ways endangered by this both because their Numbers that served in our Troops were not great and because the States could easily prevent any Inconvenience that might arise out of that which could not have been done so easily if the Roman Catholicks had been admitted to a share in the Government and in the Policy and Justice of our State. And further page 8. Since the matter that is now in Hand Relates not to the making of New Laws but to the Total Repealing of those already made both by King and Parliament Their Highnesses do not see how it can be expected of them that they should Consent to such a Repeal to which they have so just an Aversion as being a thing that is contrary to the Laws and Customs of all Christian States whether Protestants or Papists who receive none to a share in the Government or publick Employments but those who Profess the Publick and Establish'd Religion and take Care to secure it against all Attempts whatsoever And a little before Their Highnesses are Convinced in their Consciences that both the Protestant Religion and the Safety of the Nation would be Exposed to most certain Dangers if either the Tests or those other Penal Laws of which I have made frequent mention should be Repeal'd To several of these things it is my intent humbly to offer my Dissent But I desire to do it with all Deference to his Lordship and humble Submission to the Judgment and Determination of my Superiours on whose Shoulders the weight of Government whether Legislative or Executive lies and in whose Hands respectively are both the Right and Power of Disposing all publick Employments Civil Government is Ordained of God for the good of Mankind Dominion is founded in Nature and so of Consequence is Subjection to Superiours The Dissenters who acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Word of God Revealed from Heaven and to contain the standing general Rules of Faith Worship and Conversation are therein taught and readily admit that every Soul ought to be subject to the Higher Powers and to every Ordinance of Humane Creation not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake and the Lord's sake Every Independent Government being Supream over its own Subjects is vested with a Power to make and Execute such Laws as are necessary proper and adequate for its own Support and Safety and may justly require not only a Subjective Passive but an Active Obedience to be given by each particular Subject in all Lawful Things as he is thereto Capacitated and by Authority Commanded No matter or thing whatsoever openly Transacted is Exempted from the Cognizance or Judgment of such as are supream Governours within their Respective Dominions And it is certain as my Lord Fagel says There is no sort of Government in which there are not Laws made for the Safety thereof and that Provide against all Attempts that disturb their Peace And de Facto Prescribe Conditions and Qualities as they judge necessary for all that shall be employed therein But that all Conditions and Qualities are alike necessary equal and just or such as naturally tend to the Peace and Safety of the Government and that no man can pretend that there is any Injury done him that he is not admitted to publick Employments when he doth not satisfie the Conditions and Qualities required These things fall under farther Consideration If his Lordship had not declared the special Reasons why their Highnesses and himself cannot consent to a Repeal of the Tests and some Penal Laws or not mentioned the Laws of his own Country nor declared that the matter now in Hand relates not to the making of New Laws but to the total Repealing of those already made both by King and Parliament There had been no Occasion given for such Remarks as I shall now make upon these Branches of His Letter His Loadship very well knows that as Governments are divers in their Forms and Constitutions one from another so also are their Laws and Customs Mr. Stuart's Mistake gave Occasion to his Lordship to inform him aright concerning the Laws of his Countrey and if his
Lordship be mistaken concerning the Laws and Constitutions of Our Kingdom there is the like Occasion for a Right Information therein to be given to his Lordship and all others who concern themselves therein And as he subjoyns the Reasons why the Roman Catholick's are not shut out of Military Employments but are Excluded by Name from all share in the Government and from all Employments either of the Policy or Justice of their Country so I may humbly offer to His Lordships further Consideration such Reasons as I think to be cogent why no Dissenter Roman Catholick nor Protestant if Commanded and Authorized by the King and in all other Respects not touching his Religion duly qualified according to Law to Execute any Employment Civil or Military should be Excluded from thence purely because his Religion or manner of Worship is different from that which by Statute-Law is Establish'd to be the publick Worship of the Nation I doubt not but that forementioned Maxim which tends to and is necessary for the Maintenance of publick Peace and equal Justice and which is before declared to be the Opinion of their Highnesses is built upon the same Foundation which his Lordship declares to be the ground why he is very much against all those who would Page 3. Persecute any Christian because he differs from the Publick Establish'd Religion Scil. Because that Light with which Religion Illuminates Our Minds is purely an Effect of God's Mercy to us and inclines to Pity and Pray for those who Err That God would bring them into the Way of Truth and to use all Gentle and Friendly Methods for Reducing them to it And his Lordship may very well say That He could never Comprehend for I think it is not to be Comprehended by any man how any that Profess themselves Christians and that may Enjoy their Religion freely and without any Disturbance can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or to Overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be Admitted into Employments And let me add to this from the like Reasons of State and Obligation of Religion I can as little apprehend how any that are of the National Religion and may enjoy both that and all the publick Benefits of it freely and without any Disturbance can go about to disturb the Quiet of this Kingdom and to make not only Religious but our Civil Constitutions so to jarr and justle one against another as to threaten the over turning of the whole That so under the Umbrage of Statute Laws in some Respects incoherent if not with the Fundamental Law yet with the present State and Management of Publick Affairs they themselves may be the only Persons capable of Employments Exclusive of those many Myriads in the Nation who upon a Civil Account may justly desire that such Statute Laws may in an orderly Method be either in part or in whole Repealed or so Limited or Explained as that they may not for the future be any more than others of His Majesty's Subjects entangled in or subjected to a loss of their Civil Rights for a good Conscience towards God or Obedience to the Commands of their King in such things as are in their own Nature not only lawful but necessary to be done It may be his Lordship has not taken such strict notice of the Nature of the Government Constitutions and different Qualities of the Respective kinds of the Laws of England as he has done of those of his own Countrey all which are necessary to be known and well pondred before any Solid Judgment can be made in Respect of such Proceedings as have been and are like to be amongst us in the disposal and calling of Persons to Offices Places of Trust and Publick Employments His Lordship is pleased frequently in his Letter to put a great Emphasis upon such Laws as he would not have Repealed in that they are made both by King and Parliament whereas setting aside the subject matter there is nothing more in this then what is requisite to every Statute that passes into a Law some of which have never been observed at all but openly broken every day and no man ever Prosecuted for the breach of it Others Prohibiting some sorts of Trades and Merchandizes which have been Evaded Neglected or Counived at or Dispensed withal upon divers Occasions not needful to be mentioned Nothing is more frequent amongst us then to have Statute Laws made in one Parliament to be Repealed in part or in whole by the next Succeeding and sometimes in the same Parliament if of any Long Continuance But on the other hand the Sages of our Law have in their Law Books delivered certain Fundamental Maxims from which we can never recede as that If a Statute Law should be made contrary to Common Right and the General Law of Nature Reason or Scripture such a Law would be void of it self And when Actions have been grounded upon a particular Statute which in the ordinary construction of words did seem to Intrench upon any Fundamental Maxims Our Judges have given another Interpretation of such Statutes then the words in common construction would bear rather then give Judgment in any special case against such General and Fundamental Maxims The King's Prerogative is part of the Common Law of England and as this is expresly saved in several Statutes so it hath been frequently Interpreted by the Sages of our Law to extend to the Dispensing with Suspending or Pardoning of any Penalty incurred by a Statute-Law whereby no Subject can derive a particular damage to himself and wherein the Kings Power is not expresly limited And where the nature of the Offence is such as may be dispensed with the King is not confined to Number Place or Time for That the Law leaves indefinitely to His Pleasure that the Remedy may be proportionable to the Occasion And tho every Penal Statute is intended in some sense Pro Bono Publico yet it may not be Pro Bono Singulorum Populi And in such cases the Offence is understood to be only to the King's damage in His Publick Capacity of Supream Governour and therefore wronging none but Himself His Prerogative may be Exercised as oft and as largly as he is Gratiously Pleased it shall be in Acts of Mercy Kindness and Goodness to any of His Subjects who are Obnoxious to Penalties by breach of Penal Laws so as no other of His Subjects be injur'd thereby in their particular Rights And in many cases with a Non-obstante in His Grant to a Non-obstante in an Act of Parliament therein Recited His Lordship is pleased to say That it is contrary to the Laws and Customs of all Christian States whether Protestants or Papists who recieve none to a share in the Government or to Publick Employments but those who profess the Publick and Established Religion and that take care to secure it against all Attempts whatsoever But this must be taken with an Exception
by whole sale and if it should ever hereafter happen upon proof That any of our English Roman Catholicks should do Eminent Service in defence of the Public Peace and Liberty I make no doubt but the consequence would extend farther with respect unto such individual Persons then it did with the Papists in the Netherlands For greater Fidelity to the Publick Interest could not be shewn then to hazard their Lives and Persevere in their Constancy with the Reformed Protestants in defence of their Civil Liberties against Armies of their own Religion when any Act of Treachery as the Princes of the Philistians said to the King of Gath concerning King David might have Reconciled them to those of their own Communion 1 Sam. 27.4 5. perhaps with a secular Advantage to themselves and Hazard if not certain Ruine of the Lives and Liberties of the Reformed Protestants Certainly those Individual Persons if the Conditions of their Service were not before hand expresly limited to a Military Station might think they were hardly used to be excluded by Name for the sake of their Religion from all share in the Government and other publick Imployments which they had been instrumental with others to recover and defend There is one passage more in his Lordship's Letter which will lead me to what I have farther to add upon this occasion His Lordship says He would gladly see one single good Reason to move a Protestant that fears God and that is concerned for his Religion to consent to the Repealing of those Laws that have been Enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament which have no other Tendency but to the Security of the Reformed Religion and to the restraining of the Roman Catholicks from a capacity of overturning it These Laws inflict neither Fines nor Punishments and do only Exclude the Roman Catholicks from a share in the Government who by being in Employments must needs study to Encrease their Party and to gain to it more Credit and Power which by what we see every day we must conclude will be extreamly dangerous to the Reformed Religion and must turn to its great Prejudice I have before declared I have been long reckoned among dissenting Protestants and do acknowledge it is my Duty above all earthly things to Fear GOD and to be concerned for my Religion But I must beg his Lordships patience and permission to enquire into the true meaning of this Passage before I attempt to satisfy his Lordships desire 1. Because I cannot find any such Law as is effectual our present State considered to keep Reman Catholicks and no others out of Imployments or that do not either directly or of necessary consequence tend to the inflicting of Fines and Punishments on them or any other Dissenters if they resuse or without the qualifications required accept the execution of those imployments 2. I premise there may be an Explaining Qualisying or Repealing any Laws in part without a general or absolute Repeal of the whole Law an instance of this kind we have in the Reign of King James the First in the Third year of His Reign a Law was made for some persons taking and subscribing the Oath commonly called the Oath of Allegiance in the form prescribed In the Seventh year of the same King another Law was made wherein notice is taken of a just desence of the said Oath against false and unsound Arguments undertaken and performed by the Kings Majesty to the great contentment of all his loving Subjects notwithstanding the gain-saying of contentious adversaries and in this last Act it is said That the form of the Oath tends only to the Declaration of such duty as every true and well-affected subject not only by bond of Allegiance but also by the command of Almighty GOD ought to bare to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors And Enacts That every person above the age of Eighteen years therein mentioned and intended shall Make Take and Receive a Corporal Oath upon the Evangelists according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Oath set forth in the first mentioned Statute before such persons as are in that Act expressed In the Kings Epistle to all Christian Monarchs Free-Princes and States Prefixt to his Apology his Majesty declares That his Intent in that Oath was only to meddle with that due temporal obedience which his Subjects owed to him and not to intrap nor inthrall their Consciences And in Answer to the Popes Second Breve That such as had taken this Oath had sworn to no more than their Natural Allegience The Kings Intent being thus declared His Apology approved by Parliament and the Oath Explained satisfied many so as to take the said Oath which otherwise would have scrupled it Another instance we have in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in the First year of her Majesties Reign that Statute which prescribes and enjoyns the taking of the Oath called the Oath of Supremacy by all the Clergy and Temporal Officers whereby they obliged themselves to assist and desend the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors in all Jurisdictions united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm does also among other things unite and annex to the Crown all Jurisdictions Spiritual and Ecclesiastical which had before or might Lawfully be exercised for Reformation of all manner of Errors Heresies and Schisms This Act and Oath occasioned many seruples in the minds of her Majesties Subjects for which cause soon after the dissolution of this Parliament and about four years before the Calling of the next her Majesty besides the dispensations which she gave to particular Persons upon special reasons published a Book commonly called the Queens Injunctions wherein she was graciously pleased by her Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs to declare such a construction and sense of the words of this Oath exprest in other words much different as gave Her Subjects in general relief therein and acquitted such of them as should in the sense she declared take the said Oath from all manner of Penalties which were very great against such as should refuse to take the same In the next succeeding Parliament which was held in the Fifth year of her Majesties Reign this Oath of Supremacy was enjoyned to be taken not only by all such persons as were mentioned in the former Act but also by every Member of the Commons House of Parliament and it was Enacted That such as should enter into the Parliament House without taking the said Oath should be deemed no Member thereof and should suffer such pains and penalties as if he had presumed to sit in the same whithout Election Return or Authority But it was also therein provided That the said Oath should be taken and expounded in such form as was set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queens Majesties Injunctions published in the First year of her Majesties Reign which was exprest in the Act and refer'd to the said Injunctions by which it more plainly appeared and in the Eighth